Best practices for managing and operating your SharePoint farms

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017 • October 21 • Brussels Track: IT PRO | Level: 300
Best practices for managing
and operating your SharePoint
farms
Toni Frankola

SysKit is a software development company based in Zagreb,
Croatia, Europe founded in 2009.
We create innovative software solutions for SharePoint, Office
365, SQL Server, RDS, and Citrix admins and consultants.
Technology Partners

 Autodiscover Microsoft
SharePoint farms and
accompanying servers, as well
as Microsoft SQL Servers, in all
your domains
 Audit the most important
performance counters
 https://www.syskit.com/products/pulse/

SharePoint Saturday Belgium 2017 • October 21 • Brussels
Quick survey: Cloud or not?
• On-Prem
• Cloud Only
• Both

Quick survey: SharePoint
• 2007
• 2010
• 2013
• 2016

Agenda
What’s new in
SP2016
FP1
FP2
Operational
Best Practices
for SP201x

Access Services
Compliance
features
Customized web
parts
Document Library
accessibility
Durable links
Encrypted
Connections
Fast Site Collection
Creation
Filenames -
expanded support
for special
characters
Hybrid in
SharePoint 2016
Identify and Search
for sensitive
content
Image and Video
previews
Information Rights
Management
Large file support MinRole
Mobile experience
New controls for
working with
OneDrive for
Business
New Recycle Bin in
OneDrive and
Team sites
Open Document
Format (ODF)
Project Server
ReFS file system
support
SharePoint
business
intelligence
SharePoint Search
Sharing
improvements
Site Folders view Sites page pinning
SMTP Connection
Encryption
SMTP ports (non-
default)
Web Application
Open Platform
Interface Protocol
(WOPI)
• New and updated in 2016

• Hybrid
Hybrid Sites Hybrid Follow
Office 365
Profiles
Hybrid
OneDrive for
Business
Cloud Hybrid
Search

SharePoint
Foundation
Standalone Install
mode
ForeFront
Identity Manager
client (FIM)
Excel Services in
SharePoint
SharePoint BI
capabilities
(SQL2016)
Tags and Notes
SharePoint
Designer
InfoPath
• Discontinued in 2016

…..
SharePoint
• Where are we now?

• Administrative actions logging for common SharePoint administrative actions.
• MinRole enhancements to support small and medium-sized farms.
• A OneDrive for Business modern experience.
• Custom tiles in the SharePoint app launcher.
• SharePoint hybrid auditing unified across site collections on-premises and in Office
365.
• Hybrid taxonomy unified across on-premises and Office 365.
• OneDrive API for SharePoint on-premises.
• 2016 FP1 – What’s new

• SharePoint 2016 on-premises user
activity logs can be uploaded to
Office 365 and useful reports are
generated.
• Reports are available via Office 365
audit log search
• Hybrid Auditing (Preview)

• A solution to create and maintain a shared
Taxonomy between your On-Premises farm
and your SharePoint Online tenant
• Terms, Term Sets, and Groups are available in both environments
• Update your taxonomy in SharePoint Online and the changes are
automatically propagated across all of your site collections and lists
• Local terms (site specific) remain local and are not replicated
• You control which term groups are shared between On-Premises
and SharePoint Online: you can choose to keep some term groups
as On-Premises only or SharePoint only
• Hybrid Taxonomy (Preview)

• Enables logging of administrative
actions
• Administrative Actions Logging

How do I upgrade?
• Database attach upgrade (content only)
• Use other tools to recreate your farms
• 3rd party
• Community (PS)
• SharePoint Server 2016 does not support 2010 UI mode
• Compatibility level 14

• Get-SPSite -Limit All | ? { $_.CompatibilityLevel -eq 14 }
• Get-SPSite -ContentDatabase <database name> -Limit All | ?
{ $_.CompatibilityLevel -eq 14 }
• There is no concept of “site collection compatibility modes” in SharePoint Server
2016. You must be running the latest version at all times.
• Compatibility Level

• MinRole

Deploy and fixes while
minimizing downtime and user disruption
• Zero downtime patching

APP1 APP2
WFE1 WFE2
SQL1 SQL2
SQL3 (witness)
Cache
Server
Search
Server
• Typical topology for 2013

• Front-end
• Service applications, services, and components that serve user requests belong on a Front-end server. These
servers are optimized for high performance.
• Application
• Service applications, services, and components that serve back-end requests, such as search crawl requests,
belong on an Application server. These servers are optimized for high throughput.
• Distributed Cache
• Service applications, services, and components that are required for a distributed cache belong on a Distributed
Cache server.
• Search
• Service applications, services, and components that are required for search belong on a Search server.
• MinRoles in 2016
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt743704(v=office.16).aspx

• Single-Server Farm
• Service applications, services, and components required for a single-server farm belong on
a server running the Single-Server Farm role. Use this role for development, testing, and
limited production tasks.
• Custom
• Service applications, services, and components that you want to manage, instead of using
MinRole to manage them, belong on a Custom server.
• Other roles

SQL1 SQL2 SQL3
Front End
Application
Distributed Cache
Search
• Min no of servers for Zero Downtime Patching

• Front-end with Distributed Cache
• Shared role that combines the Front-end and Distributed Cache roles on the same server.
Make sure the server meets the system requirements for hosting a shared server role.
• Application with Search
• Shared role that combines the Application and Search roles on the same server. Make sure
the server meets the system requirements for hosting a shared server role.
• „Mini” MinRoles in 2016 FP1

Front-end with Distributed Cache
Application with Search
SQL1 SQL2 SQL3
• Mini MinRoles patching

SharePoint 2016 – Feature Pack 2
• SharePoint Framework client-side web part support with classic
SharePoint pages
• All of the new features that shipped with Feature Pack 1
• September 2017 CU

Best Practices

2007
9%
2010
21%
2013
37%
2016
16%
Online
17%
Survey by SPDocKit - 2016. Survey by SPCAF - 2016.
• State of SharePoint usage

• CPU
• Memory
• Network
• Disk R/W
• Disk Free space
• Hardware
Scenario RAM Processor Hard disk space
Single server
role that uses
SQL Server
16 GB 64-bit, 4 cores 80 GB for system drive
100 GB for second drive
Single server
role that uses
SQL Server
100 GB for second drive and
additional drives
Web server or
application
server in a
three-tier farm
80 GB for second drive
Web server or
application
server in a
three-tier farm
80 GB for second drive and
additional drives

• If you are planning to upgrade to the next major release of SharePoint, make sure your
existing environment is running a version of SharePoint that can be upgraded to the next
one.
• Here is a list of the build numbers required to upgrade to the next major version of
SharePoint:
• To upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to 2010, minimal build: SharePoint 2007 SP2, build number
(12.0.6421.1000)
• To upgrade from SharePoint 2010 to 2013, minimal build: SharePoint 2010 SP1, build number
(14.0.6029.1000)
• To upgrade from SharePoint Server 2013 to 2016, minimal build SharePoint Server 2013 SP1 + March
2013 PU, build number (15.0.4481.1005)
• Want to upgrade to latest version?

• Office Web App / Office Online Server
• App Fabric (2013)
• Language Packs
• Project Server
• Ah! Those updates…

• Database files and transaction log files should not be on the primary drive
• Storing all files in the same location and on the system drive can lead to severe
performance issues in the SQL Server.
• TempDB (Number of files, size, response times)
• Disk allocation size
• ModelDB (growth, initial file size)
• Maximum Degree of Parallelism (MAXDOP) (SP2013+)
• Use alias whenever possible
• Database autogrowth and initial size
• DB Best Practices

• Make sure all web.config files are the same
• Make sure you are running the same code on all servers
• Web.config files & solution deployment

• http://toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=346
• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt715807(v=office.16).aspx
• What’s the current recommended CU?

• Make sure you have updated all your site collections to the latest UI version
• Site Collection Upgrade

• SQL
• Databases
• Logs
• SharePoint
• Logs (ULS, Usage)
• Also make sure ULS is enabled and restricted
• Make sure logging is not in Verbose if not necessary
• Search Index
• IIS
• Logs
• Don’t use Primary Drive

• Security, who is your farm admin?

• SharePoint is built on top of Internet Information Services (IIS), which is a Windows
Server component. Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 introduced a loopback
security check designed to prevent reflection attacks on the server. If the FQDN or
the custom host header of the SharePoint web application does not match the local
computer name, authentication will fail.
• You have to disable the loopback check in order for SharePoint to work properly.
There are two methods to disable the loopback check.
https://bp.spdockit.com/article/configuration/servers/loopback-disabled/
• Security – Loopback check

Limit Maximum value Limit type Notes
Number of content databases 500 per farm Supported The maximum number of content databases
per farm is 500.
Content database size (general
usage scenarios)
200 GB per content
database
Supported The default file size is 50 MB, which can be
increased to a maximum of 2 GB.
Content database size (all usage
scenarios)
4 TB per content database Supported Content databases of up to 4 TB are
supported*
• Site Collection Sizes

• Coding conventions (your own or Microsoft’s)
• StyleCop (stylecop.codeplex.com)
• SharePoint server side code quality
• SPDisposeCheck
• SPCAF (www.spcaf.com)
• Code quality and tools

• A server name should not be used as a URL for your SharePoint web application.
This can cause problems if a second machine is added to this farm or when moving
to another farm
• You should use a SQL Alias
• A separate domain for SharePoint might be a good solution (if available)
• Default URLs / SQL Alias / Domain

• Background services like:
• State Service
• Search
• Sandbox Code Service
• UPA
• Web Analytics (SP2010)
• Apps (if needed) (SP2013+)
• Distributed Cache (SP2013+)
• Make sure your proxies are started
• Make sure there are no duplicate applications running
• Make sure your services and proxies are running

• Make sure you have enabled binary large object (BLOB) caching.
• BLOB caching is enabled by editing the web.config file for the web application and
changing the following line:
<BlobCache location="C:BlobCache14"
path=".(gif|jpg|jpeg|jpe|jfif|bmp|dib|tif|tiff|themedbmp|themedcss|themedgi
f|themedjpg|themedpng|ico|png|wdp|hdp|css|js|asf|avi|flv|m4v|mov|mp3|mp4|mpe
g|mpg|rm|rmvb|wma|wmv|ogg|ogv|oga|webm|xap)$" maxSize="10" enabled="false"
/>
• BP: Blog Caching Enabled

• Ensure that the page output cache is configured and turned on for the affected
sites. To do so, navigate to the site, click Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage All
Site Settings. In the Site Collection Administration column, click Site collection
output cache. In the Default Page Output Cache Profile section, select the
appropriate profile from the drop down lists and click OK.
• Publishing Cache

• To reduce the workload on the SQL server and improve overall performance, some
SharePoint features use the object cache. Object cache requires two accounts to
function properly: the Portal Super User Account and Portal Super Reader Account.
By default, for SharePoint 2010 and 2013, System Account is set as a default Portal
Super User Account and NT AUTHORITYLOCAL SERVICE is set as a default Portal
Super Reader Account.
• Set them to real service users!
• Object Cache User Accounts

• To see the installed Windows and SharePoint Server updates, start Control Panel, go
to Programs > Programs and Features and click View installed updates. Control
Panel, however, will only show installed binaries. Installing SharePoint binaries is
only a part of the patching process. To verify the upgrade status of a SharePoint
farm and servers in the farm, open the Central Administration tool, and in the
Upgrade and Migration section, click Check upgrade status.
• Make sure your run Configuration Wizard afterwards.
• Update ALL your servers

• This check detects whether web applications in SharePoint 2010 are utilizing claims-based
authentication.
• Claims-based authentication is an essential component in SharePoint 2013. Although you
can migrate a non-claims web application to SharePoint 2013, many underlying
components will not function properly. If you are planning an upgrade, we recommended
that you upgrade your existing non-claims SharePoint 2010 application to a claims-based
applications prior to your upgrade. We also recommend that you perform a couple of test
runs before you complete the production upgrade.
• Converting from classic authentication to claims-based authentication can be achieved
using the Convert-SPWebApplication Powershell cmdlet. Please consult Migrate from
classic-mode to claims-based authentication in SharePoint 2013
(https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg251985.aspx) for instructions.
• Claims-based auth

https://docs.syskit.com/bp/
SharePoint Best Practices portal

• The most commonly misconfigured stuff

1. Free Disk Space
2. Blob Caching Enabled
3. Loopback Disabled
4. Content Database Autogrowth
5. Content Database Capacity
6. RAM
7. Publishing Cache
8. TempDB Files Configuration
9. Object Cache User Accounts
10. Farm Accounts Used Interactively
11. Farm Account is not Local Admin
12. AppPool User in Performance Log
Group
13. ModelDB Files Initial Size
14. ModelDB Files Autogrowth
15. Product Supported
• The most commonly misconfigured stuff (2)

Q&A
@ToniFrankola
toni@syskit.com

Thank You!

Best practices for managing and operating your SharePoint farms

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